Sunny Days
by BirdsAlwaysFlyAway
Summary: My submission for tlcshipweeks 2015-2016. Winter x Jacin week, day 2, theme: sunny days. Jacin wakes Winter up for a surprise.


#tlcshipweeks winter x jacin theme: sunny days

Jacin had prodded her into bed at an early hour the night before, wrapping his muscled arm around her waist and keeping her close to his heart (she sometimes liked to imagine that it beat a rhythm meant as a ballad for her own heart). He had rocked Winter gently into dreams of all the beauty on Earth that she had visited during her diplomatic mission to Earth by order of Queen Selene, and all that still remained hidden from her eyes.

Her mind had been replaying a scene from their brief trip to Australia of a deep red desert that stretched further than her eyes could see, sparse shrubbery breaking up the monotony of the dry sand layering the ground, when a gentle shaking had pulled her from the strange beauty trapped within her mind. Jacin's lean body was crouched over her willowy one, his face cloaked in a soft darkness and wearing a tender smile meant only for her eyes.

"Princess?" His soft voice questioned her.

Winter pushed herself into a sitting position, angling her body towards his. "Why are you awake? Is there something wrong, Jacin?"

His smile grew slightly as he scooped up her hands and coaxed her out of the bed. He released her hands and offered her a folded pile of her clothing. "Get dressed. I have a surprise for you."

And so Winter had been forced into action, only half aware of herself and her surroundings as Jacin pushed her through the door of the building that they had temporarily made their home while on their brief holiday from responsibility. He helped her into a hover, made sure she was comfortable and then hurriedly climbed in, too.

She watched as the world sped past her eyes, gradually transforming from buildings that dreamed of touching the sky and into trees and shrubbery that hugged the earth with their low hanging leaves. Jacin was expertly guiding the hover through the early morning darkness along the narrow path lined with nature that he had claimed ended in a 'surprise'.

As the hover began to slow to a stop, Winter could barely see a clearing hidden amongst the trees. She turned to Jacin. "What is this?" she asked, a smile resounding in her words. "What are we doing here?"

He looked into the depths of her chocolate brown eyes and straight into her soul, wearing an expression so serious that her heart quivered. "We are going to watch a sunrise."

Sunrises had always been significantly valued among the people of the moon. The rare occasion where the appearance of a rising sun wasn't an artificial manipulation of the beginning of a day, Winter thought, was one that was to be appreciated repeatedly.

Needless to say, the sudden ability to be able to witness a sunrise on a daily basis had been more than a bit overwhelming, but each sunrise that she had witnessed on the blue planet had been no less beautiful – and no less appreciated – than those seen from the moon.

Unfortunately, their recent schedules had been so busy that she had not had the chance to watch a sunrise in nearly two weeks. She had missed them dearly, she realised now as rays of light reached over the horizon to colour the once-dark blades of grass that curled around her limbs in a lush green.

Winter turned to look at Jacin, watching as the early morning glow of the sun threaded its fingers through Jacin's blond hair and the wind encouraged the rays of light by gently pushing his hair out of his beautiful eyes.

Jacin's head titled to catch her watching him. His eyes shone with peace and love for her, and his lips were titled in a genuine, relaxed smile. Back on Luna, during the reign of Queen Levana, she had had to work very hard every day to be able to remember what a smile on Jacin's face had looked like.

But now every day she got to see different variations of his curved lips. When she looked at those curved lips, she saw – as clearly as the sun – the comparison between an Earthen sunrise and a Luna sunrise. She could see the reliability in a sunrise of Earth, the constant knowledge that it would appear every single day at exactly the same time, knowing that the sun could never stay hidden for too long. But a sunrise seen from Luna was periodic, never quite there, and while it was a beautiful sight, the inability to see that beauty for months at a time was quite disheartening.

"I'm glad that you're happy," Jacin whispered to her, as if the sound of his voice could break the moment they had been caught in.

Winter turned away so she could lean her shoulder into him and rested her head on his shoulder. She felt a soft kiss pressed into her hair. Watching the sun climb higher into the sky to bath the world in light, she whispered back, "I've only ever been truly happy with you by my side."

Tilting her head back so she could see the affect her words had on him, she was able to truly witness the rising sun in his smile, and she knew that it would always be like a sunrise from Earth, and not one of Luna.


End file.
